@TarjeiJS: “FIDE’s Carlsen- Karjakin schedule with a rest day in the weekend if one of the worst moves made from a commercial point of view.”

@acepoint:“With a free day at each of the last three weekends the organizers of Carlsen – Karjakin are simply telling: we don’t need spectators”.

@elmaletero:” My kid’s chess teacher flew out to NY from Utah last weekend, but could only catch one game.”

Let’s help the organizers then, shall we? @pookita: “Chess world. FIDE/Agon can’t schedule the WC so every wknd day has a game. Can we help?”

According to the organisers, we cannot: @worldchess: “HERE IS NO WAY TO AVOID WEEKENDS on REST DAYS. Caps so you would know next time you plan your week.”

You can be the nicest person, writing a perfectly harmless statement, but hit that Caps Lock button, and suddenly you sound like a raging psycho.

@oyvindbrunvoll:“Love their use of CAPS. No argument can beat CAPS!”

I don’t want to post the long list of embarrasing @worldchess tweets on this subject here. If you are interested, you find them on Twitter. Here are a few reactions from professionals and real chess fans:

GM Jon Ludvig Hammer: @gmjlh: “Agon is imploding, judging by this and the last ten tweets from @theworldchess”.

@chessnotes:“Sad. A tiny bit of constructive criticism & personal observation on they’re on full tilt. Hope for better in 2018.”

@heliokostya:“Really strange how @theworldchess responds to constructive criticism. It’s Sunday, what a great day for G12…”

Enough about this subject, or how @worldchess would put it: ENOUGH!!!!

Before we go to the tweets of game 12, two sad tweets:

@MarkTwic:” GM Urii Eliseev 1996-2016. Sad news of the death of Eliseev at 20 after a fall.”

Nuff said about game 12. In the next edition I will collect some more post-game reactions and suggestions how to reform the world championship. The last tweet goes out to @giddinssteve:“Time to put the world chess championship out of its misery. There is no future in these events “.

@seitenschach:“The live coverage of the #CarlsenKarjakin is off to a rocky start – the (pay wall) official site isn’t working. Bad news for #FIDE and #Agon”. @sixhat: “The WC website reveals 3 things: arrogance, incompetence, and greed.”

Two hours after the start of the first game, @theworldchess tweeted: “We deeply apologize for the black out of online broadcast at the beginning of the match. Things are fixed and working now”.

Let’s go to the game, shall we?@JakeDarmanin:“Grab your popcorn. One of the sickest chess championships is about to start.”

@JonathanRowson: “After a long gruelling week, what a treat to discover (I’m out of the loop) that the World Chess Championship has begun”.

It did not take long before these tweets came: @MeloMann1971: “Magnus opens with TRUMPovsky against Putin’s boy !! @jeremy_heckt: “Magnus Carlsen trolling America by opening the World Chess Championship in NY with the Trompowsky attack. Lol.”

Twitpic courtesy of @mitxxxael

@GMjtis: “Henrik Carlsen has just said he wonders if the Tromp is a typical Magnus pun to refer to the US election.”

@JimTrowbridge:You’re pretty danged relaxed if you let a pun decide your choice of opening for Game 1 of WCC.

@stephenleary:I’d be really disappointed if Carlsen was as nutty about US politics as Gary Kasparov.

But hey, who cares about moves?

@DaveEwart: Magnus has a nice shirt & jacket, no tie. Sergey has nice shirt & jacket, *black tie*. An interesting strategy, to be sure. An interesting question was tweeted by @sehr_schwierig:“What do u think of a marriage between Carlsen and Taylor Swift?”

@Joeryan007 does not believe in chess training, he believes in chairs: “I am really impressed with those fancy chairs the players have. I think one of those would improve my play immensely. “

When people start tweeting about these subjects, away from the game, it means that there is not really much going on. After three hours, an equal looking position was reached around move 20. What’s your take @JonathanRowson? “It’s a real advantage. Small but enduring. If I was White v Magnus I wouldn’t take a draw here. And that’s saying something! ” Let’s ask Nigel: @nigelshort: “The World Champion is trying the technique of what Spassky refers to as squeezing one testicle at a time.”

9 November: what a day. Did you know that on 9 November 1985, Garry Kasparov became the youngest ever undisputed World Chess Champion by defeating then-champion Anatoly Karpov?

Four years later, a wall fell.

@Europe_Echecs: “A Berlin defense for the 25th anniversary of the Fall of the Wall would not be a good idea”, and added this twitpic:

Of course Carlsen and Anand played the Berlin Defence in game 2. It was just a matter of time before the first “Wall” tweet popped up. The winner is @mortenp: “Berlin being played on the 25th anniversary of the fall of the wall”. @chess24.com: “So an anti-Berlin on the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall!”

This is one of the best videos I found about the building of the wall:

Back to chess. Ready for game 2?

@_cyberella:“I have a box of chocolates, fresh coffee and Carlsen – Anand streaming on the laptop. It’s a perfect Sunday”.

Hmm, Sunday is also Premier League day, too bad that the organizers planned game two today: @TarjeiJS:“One of Carlsen’s closest friend saying he wants to win quickly today, because of Swansea-Arsenal starting at 5 (CET)”.

@rajachess:“Is he really going to watch Swansea-Arsenal?”

@nigelshortchess:“Reti was right: 1.e4 is just a blunder” and added: “I am quite glad I chose to finish my lunch rather than rush back home for the opening moves”.

@anishgiri:“Sad necessity of modern chess. Back in the days a6 Bxc6 was considered nothing, now Magnus tries it even without a6”. @fabianocaruana: Even without a6 he can enjoy memories of his game vs Grischuk. It’s only 1 tempo after all.

The commercial break

And now… in the middle of the game…we have to leave you for a commercial break….

@ChessIndiaNet: “So fortunate to see the Borat’s museum ad again :)” @cyberella: “And now we’re getting ads, in the middle of the match??? What hideous way to cover a World Championship!!” @ImbiebsRainbow: “Commercial breaks. Meanwhile, the guys are making moves. I don’t get it at all, isn’t the game more important right now?”

@OlimpiuUrcan: “This repetitive Russian Chess Museum infomercial threatens to set a new world record of Ivan the Terrible mentions in the next three weeks.”

@Rfed1: “Dei, this is absurd. They have scheduled ad breaks and you are forced to watch some Russian crap for 10 minutes non stop”.

@FuriousRoger:“Carlsen has one eye on the Swansea game, while Vishy is mulling over the choice of pickle for his thayir sadam”

Hikaru Nakamura is watching the match from sunny California and tweeted: @GMHikaru:“Strange moves by Anand in the middlegame. In particular, the knight almost always belongs on e6 in these exchange Ruy structures. 18…Ne6!” And what do you think about the position, @FabianoCaruana:“This is very nasty for black. And exactly the type of position where Carlsen is at his most ruthless”.

Caruana could be the next challenger, right? @mousa_bander tweeted: “In 2016, carlsen-caruana , in 2018, carlsen-giri, In 2020 carlsen- stockfish”.

Carlsen’s seconds “The Dane and The Hammer” were obviously confident about the position, and started tweeting during the game: @PHChess: “Would be a fitting day to tear down the Berlin wall..” and immediately after the game Jon Ludvig Hammer @gmjvh tweeted:“The wall has fallen!”

Brilliant stuff by Wadalupe!

What happened? Let’s ask @Jonathan_Rowson: “Essence of why Vishy lost today? He evaluated position after 23.Rc3 as close to equal, but it’s close to lost. Easily done.” And he added: “All said and done, hyper-classy, super skilled, quietly deadly, brutally elegant win by Magnus today.”

What do you think, @Nigelshortchess:“Blunders don’t happen in a vacuum. 34…h5?? came after enormous sustained pressure”

@AnishGiri:” It’s hard to a win a match if the starting point for your ‘strategy’ is “I am a weaker player.”

The fans in India were disappointed, of course. A selection of tweets: @anand_bombay: “The other Candidates players must be thanking their stars that they are not the ones at the receiving end. ” @deshmukhavinash: “Very angry and upset with defeat. Anand literally crumbled under pressure”. @arvindtal: “Vishy is such a disappointment that i started listening to some classical music (Saint Saens) after the game to ease the blow.”

@Jonathan_Rowson:“If Indian press are giving Vishy a hard time they should chill out. He lost one game to the best player ever having a particularly good day.”

@MagnusCarlsen was all smiles after the game:“Nice way to end the weekend…” and showed a selfie with his sister Ellen.

A perfect Sunday for the world champion? Àlmost. Remember the tweet about Swansea-Arsenal?

A lot of people watched football this weekend, many people in Norway watched chess: Spurs fan @TarjeiJS has the exact figures for us:“218,000 Norwegians followed Carlsen-Anand on #nrksjakk this weekend, 52.000 more than in Chennai. (via @Aftenposten)”.

@OlimpiuUrcan: “That’s about 4.3% of Norway’s population. Or, if FIDE staffers would calculate that, about 85%.”

@EnniscorthyChess: “Oh no, Chess Olympiad is on a rest day….. What will we do?” Any plans for today@LuisBlascioCruz:“Today Rest day. Day to make contacts and to enjoy the city”.

Let’s have a look at the last rest day on Wednesday. It must have been quite a depressing day in Tromsø, according to the number of “bad news” tweets!

Let’s kick off with Paco Vallejo, who went to a Carribean party, according to the hashtag: @Chessidharta: “#Caribbeanparty 2 am – “may i ask u smth personal” – Sure! – ” is it true that u had 60 girls in 2 months? ” ‘WTF . Kids Alcohol is bad. ”

Alcohol is bad, true, what about the music, Eric Hansen? @hansenchess: “Very mediocre music at the parties this Olympiad. Quite dissapointed!”

Perhaps Sabrina can tell us what is going on? @SChevannes: “Why can I hear what sounds like God awful karaoke coming through my bedroom window in Tromso 2014. Can anyone else hear it?”

Oh dear, sounds like it is not a good news day today? Any FIDE news to cheer you up, Nigel? @NigelShortChess: “I have had a glimpse of Hell. It resembles an endless FIDE General Assembly”.

@kevinbonham:“Today’s FIDE congress is going so slowly bryologists have discovered six new species of moss growing on”

Didn’t you get a job offer from FIDE, Nigel: @SteveGiddins: “Is it true you have accepted Kirsan’s African job offer?”

@NigelShortChess: “Yes. Having appointed me as Director of the $500,000 Africa fund 2 days ago, he now says he doesn’t have the power to do so :)”

No power, no funds, no money? Any news about the 20M? Let us check the FIDE website. Oh wait…: @mikhail_golubev:“Still no news at Fide.com on Ilyumzhinov’s 20 mln USD announcement. It’s logical: why to post every empty promise of the boss?”

Come on, give me some more bad news: @TarjeiJS: “Carlsen will NOT play the last round of the Chess Olympiad and will be leaving Tromsø tonight.” Tarjei added a twitpic from NRK later:

Yeah, keep them coming: @Echecs64: “RUS-FRA, worst last round pairing for ze Frenchies. Who will be out? Fressinet? Tkachiev?”

Big bad news item of the day: @ChessVibes: “Biggest news of today is the retirement of Judit Polgar……. (especially when confirmed…)

@times_chess: “A great honour for Times Chess that greatest female chessplayer in the history of the game has chosen “The Times” to announce her retirement”. @GMJanGustafsson: “Wow, Judit Polgar is retiring, is this for real?”

@MarkTwic: “If it turns out to be completely untrue then The Times has a huge amount of explaining to do.”

Any more retirement news, Hikaru? @GMHikara:“Is it my imagination or does this Olympiad feel like the end of a generation with many great players retiring or not competing again? “

@MarkTWIC:“I’m not sure everyone will retire but this feels like an pivotal Olympiad to me too”.

@GMHikaru:“Well, Kamsky has also said that this is his final Olympiad.”

All the bad Olympiad news packed in one tweet: @portisdos:“Carlsen say that will not play the last round. Polgar announce her retirement. Kirsan crush Kaparov and Short sing a song. “

@GregoryChess: “Is Susan Polgar retiring? LOL”

Ok, one positive tweet for you to end this depressing report. Some people seem to have fun in Tromsø:

@pogonina: “Pogoplane”.

One final tweet for today: Did you have a good day, Mig? @chessninja: If you try to tip housekeeping in this Norwegian hotel by putting money on the pillow, you come back and they’ve left it in a little stack.”

One more day before the games of the 41st Chess Olympiad start in Tromsø. You will find lots of of previews, pictures and reports on the well known chess news websites. On this blog you can find the best, funniest and most remarkable tweets of the Olympiad in a storyline (more or less).

@Chess24.com: “One day to go”

Adventures of Naka

It is interesting to follow the adventures of Hikaru Nakamura, who desperately tries to get to Tromsø somehow, after he missed a connection in London.

@GMHikaru: “Can it get worse?? Now I apparently have no confirmed seat on the 2nd and can’t even arrive in Tromso till the 3rd evening at the earliest.”

On his Facebook site Nakamura posted a big story about his trip. I do not want to copy the whole story (this blog is called Chess in Tweets, not Chess on Facebook), but the last part is interesting:

“I simply do not understand why the organizers with a massive budget did not attempt to add a few extra flights so that A) the prices would be a bit cheaper even on original tickets and B)so that the availability would not be such an issue in the case of delays.”

@TarjeiJS: “Nakamura’s tweet about his cancelled flight already made it to the headlines in Norway”. @asimpereira: So have they agreed to shift Norway.. yet? Jonathan Tisdall replied: @GMjtis: Think they’re working on turning the country upside down to make the north more accessible for Naka ;-).

@Saetrus tweeted to Nakamura:” Welcome to the outskirts of the world…”

Perhaps Naka should contact his new sponsor Red Bull. After all, their slogan is: “Red Bull gives you Wings”.

@Chessnotes: “Should we start watching all the airports now for a big game of “Where’s @GMHikaru“?” And added this picture:

Long flight for this team as well: @OlimpiuUrcan: “Singapor’s Olympic team arriving in Tromsø after a 17-hour flight”, and added this twitpic:

@OlimpiuUrcan added: One thing that could ruin this long flight is some 20-year-old wearing a Putin T-shirt sitting next to me for the next 12 hours.

Eric Hansen @hansenchess: “Luggage lost in Paris but made it to Tromso. Hope I will get my bags by tomorrow or I may be forfeited for hygeine”. @AnishGiri: “And the mighty Dutch team has arrived @Tromso2014 too! We’re all ready”.

GM Nigel Short is on his way….@NigelShortChess: “The delights of wifi on planes! If we get hit by a Russian missile, I will tweet to inform you 🙂

Meanwhile…in Tromsø

@ISBREWater: “A Special ISBRE Water Logo For The Chess Olympiad Shipped With Love To Tromsø, Norway.

Nice stuff. Many players would definitely prefer a beer, but not everybody can afford to pay €8.77 for pint! (price according to www.pintprice.com). Yochanan Afek, who just plays an Open tournament in The Netherlands tweeted: @afekchess: “Lots of fun and success in Tromso! I still consider to rob a bank and join you. The beers in Vlissingen however are still way cheaper!”

Friday was a day for stamp lovers: @GMJtis: “Norway launching postage stamp dedicated to world champion Magnus Carlsen and the centenary of the chess federation, today in Tromsø.”

@TarjeiJS:” Carlsen clearly very excited about appearing on a stamp!”

@JohnChess: “The fact that nothing much excites him is the reason he’s such a good chessplayer.”

The visitors are getting ready for the Olympiad and spend some free time before the opening ceremony on Friday to explore Tromsø.

@TarjeiJS: “The nice thing about hosting a #ChessOlympiad in a small city as Tromsø, is that whenever you go, you will see chess players!”

@chessninja: “Walking across Tromsø with @Kasparov63, whose image is all over town, is like walking around Moscow w him back in the day. Every head turns.” @OlimpiuUrcan: “Who was the consultant who advised on these Kasparov posters all over Tromsø? That mournful dark goes really well with the “future” bit.”

i guess they did not stop to watch the game between Andrey Filatov and Kirsan Ilyumzhinov. @GMastrokoukos:“While Kasparov’s camp is filling up Tromso with bad taste posters, Ilyumzhinov is in the city promoting chess!”

@pogonina: “Saw Ilyumzhinov and Filatov play giant chess on the street. Watched only the final, but Kramnik told me it was a good game overall! ;)”

Opening ceremony

In the evening the opening ceremony started, live on TV and on livestream for the rest of the world. @TarjeiJS:“Maybe I am biased, but if this opening ceremony don’t impress the chess world, nothing will. Excellent show! :)” @ChessNinja: “Opening ceremony. Come for the light show, stay for the speeches!”

Did I mention Magnus Carlsen already? Of course he was on stage. with the Norwegian team. @MarkTWIC: “You’d have thought Carlsen would have dressed up”, followed up with : “The rest of the team turned up in suits! OK slightly joking as his jeans probably cost more than my suit.”

The opening ceremony just lasted an hour: @Pookita: “58 minutes. How long was the World Championship opening ceremony in Chennai?? It might still be going on.”

Now that the opening ceremony is over pretty early, there is enough time for the players to prepare for the games. Apparantly, some people are looking forward to the games: @youareaphoney: “Hyped as fuck for Sjakk-OL “.

@GMJuditPolgar: “There will be great battles here starting from tomorrow 🙂 The playing hall of the Chess Olympiad in Tromso!”